Age of Miracles
by Laura Picken
Summary: The Guardians, the Avengers, and a 'few' of their friends and allies go to war against HYDRA.
1. Chapter 1

Hi Everyone! Yep, this is the start of the sequel to "Power of Persuasion" and "North Star". It's also going to (and yes, I mean it this time) be my final fan fiction. I've been putting off the jump to full original fiction for far too long...it's time to end that. And, as such, I'm throwing everything but the kitchen sink into this one, including the long-awaited Caskett/Guardian wedding. Let's start with the disclaimer:

Technically, the full category for this story should be a Castle/Avengers/Agents of SHIELD/Sentinel crossover. This site, as we all know, will only allow for two categories in a crossover listing, so I'm listing this as a Castle/Avengers crossover to reach the widest possible potentially interested audience. Feel free to promote this story heavily if you think anyone doesn't know about it that should know of its existence.

And this will be no surprise to anyone who's read much of my previous work, but this story is in its own little eccentric alternate universe of the "Guardians of Shangri La". If you haven't read any part of that series to this point, just leave now, go to my author page, look for the story "Four Winds" and start from the beginning. I promise, you won't be disappointed. While there are some parts of the current story arc of Avengers/Agents of SHIELD that I'm enjoying, there are quite a few things that are bugging me (Garrett being the Clairvoyant but *not* being clairvoyant...Agent Ward...grrrr...) and other things that, well, I know would be much more fun in the crazy little world in my head. So welcome! Kick your feet up, relax, and enjoy your adventure into the twilight zone...

This story will be *long* and ongoing (which is why the disclaimer is getting its own chapter), with posts coming at varying levels of frequency at least until I see Avengers: Age of Ultron some time next year (2015). This is how I vent when shows start to tick me off. ;-) If you want to come along for the ride, I highly recommend following me or this story. And as always, more comments will help me write faster, so speak up if you have any questions, comments, praise or snide remarks!

SPOILER ALERT: I tend to cherry pick from the current seasons of my favorite shows as I see fit based on their relevance to my little alternate universe. In the case of this story, that means there will be references to Thor: the Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (for the 12 or so Marvel fans who are still reading and *haven't* seen the movie yet), and, naturally, the current season of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." So if you haven't seen that stuff and don't want to be spoiled, don't say I didn't warn you...

LEGALESE(ish): I don't own Sentinel, Castle, or Marvel Comics (I know, shocker, right?). I will cooperate with a proper cease and desist order if anyone seems offended enough to write one (and I can prove its validity-no trolls, please!). This is all in good fun and the hopes of telling a rip-roaring adventure yarn, though, so I hope any copyright owners will take this will all the love and affection I have for the characters you've created.

I do, however, claim the rights to the original concepts and characters in this story: The Guardians of Shangri La and their history, Diane McPherson, Ekaterina Petrovich, et al. Please don't use the original characters I've created without my permission. I will probably give it as long as you let me beta the story, though, if you're interested...

Anyway...I doubt I've hit a record even for my long-winded disclaimers, but we're set to go with this one. On with the show!


	2. Chapter 2

_**Age of Miracles: Prologue**_

**A/N: **Just in case you ignored my wordy little disclaimer, this preface will include spoilers for the end of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". It's essentially a Guardian-style missing scene from the movie. Don't say I didn't warn ya...

#

Steve Rogers opened his eyes to a world that was...a little blurry. He was on his back, resting on a bed of gravel, looking up at what he could only assume was the sky. Plus, he was soaking wet. _ Where am I? _he asked himself. _What happened..._

And then he tried to move. *Everything* hurt, from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. The pain brought his memories back in a rush of emotion. Which only seemed to magnify the pain.

He should have died. While the unique structure of his body might have been the reason that he didn't die instantly in the impact from falling from the helicarrier, Steve remembered his last moment before he lost consciousness. Underwater. Sinking to the bottom of the Potomac.

The river should have been his watery grave. So why was he where he was? Steve gasped as the answer came to him in a rush. _Bucky. _The 'Winter Soldier' was the only one who could have seen his fall *and* done anything to help him. _He remembers me, _thought Steve, his heart soaring with the revelation. _He remembers me, and he saved my life. I gotta find him..._

The second attempt at moving his battered body went no better than the first. Steve closed his eyes and sighed with the frustration of having his body betray his mind for the first time in a very long time.

When he opened his eyes, though, the sight filling his vision couldn't have been more pleasant. "Hey there, old man," his girlfriend teased. "Have a nice swim?"

"Lex?" asked Steve, surprised. "What are you..."

"I never took off that tracking spell," Alexis replied, cutting off Steve's question before he asked it. "Sorry it took me so long to get to you..."

Steve rolled his head, trying to blow off the apology. "S'alrigh..."

It wasn't hard for Alexis to catch the weakness of Steve's voice. "Can you move, hon?" she asked.

Steve shook his head. "Not so far."

They were gone before the superhero had a chance to explain any further.

#

Twenty minutes later, Steve was in a hospital bed in New York City, facing two of the women he most cared about in the world. And neither of them looked particularly happy. "Well," Lanie exclaimed with a sigh, "that's one expression I should probably never use again."

"Which one?" asked Steve.

Lanie replied, "just when I start to think I've seen everything..."

Steve blushed, knowing exactly what the healer was trying to tell him. "I never wanted to see this happen, either," he agreed. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Lanie countered. "I'll leave you two alone to get to *that*." Turning on her heel to leave her office, Lanie grumbled, "and take the damn coin already, would you..."

Steve chuckled, shaking his head as he accepted the last thing that Lanie had 'told' him. His face fell immediately, though, when he saw the relief and leftover terror fighting to control the expression of his 'best girl'.

Alexis was in no mood to joke. "Steve, I..."

"I never wanted you to see me like that," Steve admitted quickly, cutting Alexis off. "I'm sorry I had to put you through this."

"That's not the point and you know it," Alexis spat back in argument. "I get why you wanted to protect me from SHIELD. And now, with everything that's happened, I am *so* happy that you kept me as far away from them as you did. But I could have helped you out there. You were so busy 'protecting' me that you shut me out when you needed me most. And you almost *died* because of it." She let out a sigh born of pure frustration. "Steve, *when* are you going to stop doing that?"

Steve squeezed the hand that seemed to be holding onto his for dear life. "You're right, Lex," he admitted. "You are just as capable of saving the world as I am. Maybe more so." The smile the last comment elicited from his beloved lightened Steve's own mood a bit, and he found himself able to return the expression for a second before he continued. "It's just that...I've lost so many people, Alexis. People that I cared about as much as...I don't know what I would do if I lost you, too."

"But you're not *going* to lose me, Steve," Alexis countered. "You know that. If anything, I need to be much more worried about losing *you* than it going the other way around. *Especially* after today."

_She's right, _Steve finally admitted to himself. Ever since he stepped out of Erskine's and Stark's machine and became Captain America, he had felt invincible so much of the time. "When I...woke up in SHIELD and realized where I was. And *when* I was," Steve explained, "I just...I guess I came to believe that I was just living on borrowed time. I would do my job and live my life day by day because...well, because I should have been dead twenty years ago. Maybe even before that. Until I met you I didn't even really have anything to live *for*. It's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that you'll outlive me. By centuries."

Alexis pulled one hand away from Steve's to caress his arm. The more she touched Steve, the more Alexis relaxed, reassured that he was still there. That he survived. This time. "You know, it doesn't have to be that way."

Steve nodded. "The coin."

"You always told me that you thought you didn't need that extra level of protection," said Alexis. "Still feel like that?"

Steve shook his head. "No, I don't."

Alexis pulled the medallion out of her pocket, using both of her hands to place the necklace in Steve's hand. "Then will you *finally* take this thing?" she insisted. "So we can stop worrying about each other and start working as a *team*?"

Steve wrapped his fingers around the talisman sitting in his hand, pulling it up to examine it a little more closely. "This thing really is ugly," he commented quietly.

"No one ever has to see it but us," Alexis insisted. "And it doesn't have to be pretty to do its job."

Steve nodded, sighing as he realized every argument he had made against taking the coin just didn't apply anymore. He slipped the chain over his head, pulling his body armor out as much as he could so the necklace could rest out of plain sight. "Happy now?" he teased, acting less exasperated than he felt.

"Yes," Alexis exclaimed, her relieved smile radiating the emotion throughout her entire being. "Yes, I'm happy."

When Steve accepted the sincerity in his girlfriend's comments, his heart melted. "Good," he agreed with a smile. Their lips met in a gentle kiss that gloried in the implicit promise of an eternity together.

Alexis was the first one to break away from the kiss as a question popped into her mind. "Steve?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Not to make light of your injuries or anything...but how did you wind up on shore? From what Lanie said I probably should have been fishing you out of the bottom of the Potomac."

Steve's eyes lit up as his memories from the shore returned and inspired him. "Did I ever tell you about my best friend Bucky?"

Alexis raised a wary, but curious eyebrow. "Bucky? No, I think I would have remembered *that* name..."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **One of the biggest sticking points when I originally outlined this story was where to branch off from the current "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." storyline, "Uprising". Agent Ward was the big problem here. If you haven't read "Power of Persuasion" (even though I can probably be 95% confident that most of you have), I've already branched off from "Uprising" in one major way: in my world, Garrett is *not* the Clairvoyant. Which of course, means nothing about his overall loyalties...or Ward's. However, it was made pretty abundantly clear in "Providence" that Ward's loyalties are to Garrett, and anything else (even a potential romance with Skye) would never be primary for the character. The key in this story has been finding a point where I could branch off with the "SHIELD" characters and still remain true to where I suspect the show will go with them in the future. Up until now Ward wasn't settled enough for me to feel confident with developing his character. "Providence" seems to have cleared that up a bunch (unfortunately). So the end of "Providence" will be where we pick things up with our friends Skye and Agent Coulson...

#

"Grant Ward," he declared to the computer that was pointing its turret at him, "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

The snow-covered 'boulder' in front of him opened its door with a gentle whoosh. "Welcome, Agent Ward," the computer voice gently replied, "we've been expecting you."

Ward smiled as the door fully opened to reveal his 'target' waiting patiently for his arrival. "Thought you might have given me bad directions," he teased.

"At least the machine gun didn't start shooting at you," Skye teased back before her mind fully took in the look of the man standing in front of her. The sight concerned her. "You okay?" she asked, examining the gash on the side of her S.O.'s head and the trail of blood drying down the side of his face.

Ward blew off her concern. "It's just a scratch," he replied...until he started to take off his backpack. "Maybe a broken rib or two," he admitted.

Skye took the pack, lifting the weight from her injured partner. "Come on," she told him. "Simmons should take a look at you." Skye's smile returned as her hopes lifted with Ward's smile. "Then maybe we can get that drink."

"Deal," Ward agreed. His smile turned as he followed Skye down the corridor. _God, she is so easy,_ he thought. _I'll have that password and be out of here before she can recover from the hangover. Then maybe Garrett will buy me that dinner he owes me..._

Skye had to fight to keep herself composed as Ward's thoughts floated through her mind. _I have to be imagining this,_ she thought, _that can't be right..._she took in a deep breath as she walked, then let it out slowly, using her father's teachings to forge a stronger bond between her mind and the mind of her S.O...and once that connection was established, it took all of Skye's rapidly fraying emotional control to keep herself from turning the man into a whimpering, suffering, babbling vegetable where he stood.

When the rest of the group watched Ward follow into the main room behind Skye, May, Fitz and Simmons all sighed with relief at seeing their team whole and together once again. Coulson would have been equally relieved...were it not for the look of barely controlled, burning rage that he saw on Skye's face. "Skye?" Coulson asked in wary confusion. "What's wrong?"

Skye's anger overrode any hesitation she might have had over telling the group what she had 'heard'. "You've been a very busy guy, haven't you, 'Grant'?" she purred, faking seduction before her voice turned into pure pain and fury. "Killing Agent Hand and her team, breaking Quinn and Raina out of prison and taking the Fridge. All part of your service to your boss. The. Clairvoyant."

The room erupted into chaos almost instantly. May, Fitz and Simmons stared at Skye in disbelief, assuming that the girl had finally snapped. "Sk...Skye," Simmons stammered, trying and failing to keep her composure, "this is Agent Ward. Grant. He's one of the good guys. He's most definitely not a..."

"Traitor," Coulson finally gasped out in shock. In contrast to his team, Coulson had no doubts about Skye's sanity or the validity of her words...especially when they could have only come from one source. Not that it made hearing the truth any less painful. "You're HYDRA?"

Ward paled with shock. "What!?" he exclaimed. "No! I was there, in the Hub with you guys, remember?" He turned to Skye. "Skye, what could possibly make you think that..."

All protests stopped in the blink of an eye. Coulson had sprinted across the room at superhuman speeds and was holding Ward high above his head. With one hand. By the *neck*. "Give me one good reason not to squeeze the life out of you. Right. Now," he growled.

Silence filled the room as most of the agents surrounding Ward and Coulson found themselves too dumbfounded to speak. The one agent who was able to find her voice, though, found herself being the voice of reason only with the greatest of reluctance. "AC," Skye insisted calmly, "we need to find out why he's here and what Garrett wants, at the very least. He wouldn't have come back if HYDRA didn't think they could get something from us. Something they need."

While the voice that Skye used could have no permanent effects on the tiger-possessed agent, Coulson was still moved by the truth behind her words. He lowered Ward down until the traitor was able to stand on his own two feet...without ever letting go of his vise-grip on the man's neck. "Leave us," Coulson ordered. "Mr. Ward and I need to continue this discussion in private." No one moved, so Coulson repeated the command with a bit more force the second time. "GET OUT!" he yelled.

The agents quietly filed out of the room one by one, until only Skye was left with the two men. She patted the shoulder of her clearly furious and hurting friend in a gesture of support. Coulson stopped her exit, covering Skye's hand with his free one and sharing a plea of unspoken communication with the younger woman. Understanding immediately what Coulson was trying to ask her without words, Skye quietly, solemnly, nodded once...

...and disappeared.

Ward's jaw dropped, shocked for a second time by the behavior of someone he thought he knew so well. "Wh...what happened to Skye?" he gasped out quietly. "Were did she g..."

"Quiet," Coulson ordered Ward, cutting off the question that he had absolutely no interest in answering. "Sit. Down. I'm going to ask the questions around here. And you *will* answer them truthfully. For *once*."

Ward continued to feign innocence. "Sir, you can't possibly believe..."

"I believe in evidence," Coulson countered quickly. "And if Skye says your loyalties are to HYDRA, then that's all the evidence I need. First question. Why are you here?"

Ward opened his mouth to attempt to protest further...but when Coulson took two steps forward and growled at him, 'Ward' finally gave up the act. "Do you *really* think your threats and half-tortures are going to scare me into talking?"

"Oh, I don't need torture," Coulson argued calmly. "I have something that's much, *much* more effective."

Ward let out an arrogant chuckle. "What's that, Coulson?" he mocked the older man. "Your sparkling personal..." The tease died on Ward's lips as his face paled. His eyes began to dart around the room, looking at his surroundings with an ever-growing sense of panic. "I can't see!" he gasped out in shock. "Why can't I see? What kind of drug did you dose me with? What the hell did you do to me?!"

Coulson smiled, allowing himself one moment to be impressed by Skye's growing control and creativity before forcing himself to continue. "First question. Why are you here?"

_Answer him,_ Skye projected into Ward's mind. _Tell him *everything*._

"Skye pulled one of her super-double-secret encoding jobs on the hard drive she used to back up the bus' data," Ward explained quickly. "When no one at Garrett's base could crack the code they sent me to get it out of Skye..." Ward felt like the wind had been knocked out of him when he finished. "Why did I say that?" he gasped out, shocked by his own instant level of honesty. "Why in God's name did I just say that?!"

Coulson ignored the question in favor of delivering another one of his own. "Second question. How long have you been with HYDRA?"

"Since high school," Ward blurted out. "Garrett recruited me." Shocked at his free, open and honest answers to Coulson's questions, Ward wanted to cover his mouth with his hands to keep himself from blurting out anything else...until he realized something far more terrifying than the truth. "Why can't I move my hands? Coulson, what kind of sick game are you playing? What the hell is this?!"

"Next question," Coulson demanded, ignoring Ward's pleas for information. "Did Fury and May want you on this team, or did Garrett?"

"Garrett," Ward replied with a groan, clearly hating himself more and more even as his mouth betrayed him let again. "He really, *really* wants to know how Fury brought you back from the dead so that he can replicate the process."

Coulson leaned in close enough that Ward could feel the older man's hot breath blowing across his mouth and nose. "Last question. Does Garrett know about Skye?"

Ward frowned, clearly confused by the question. "No. What does he need to know about Skye? Yeah, she's a good hacker, but..."

Coulson stood up, having heard all he could stand to hear for the moment. He turned to the younger woman who had assisted him in the interrogation. "Lead Mr. 'Ward' to whatever this place has for jail cells around here. Oh, and Skye?"

Skye looked up from where she was forcing Ward to a standing position with his hands safely secured behind him. "Yes, AC?"

"Thank you," Coulson replied, his voice radiating warmth and sincere gratitude.

Skye smiled as she pushed Ward ahead of her with a little more force than was necessary for the job. "Believe me," she insisted as her mind wandered to how close she had come to letting herself fall for the sick twisted neo-Nazi lover in front of her...

"It has been my genuine pleasure."

#


	4. Chapter 4

"I can't believe this..." sighed Castle. "It wasn't nearly this hard the first two times...I don't think..."

Beckett chuckled as she added five more people to their seemingly endless list of names. "I kinda pegged you for the 'just show up in a tux' type, Castle..."

"The first time I was," Castle admitted. "It was something of a shotgun wedding."

Beckett's eyebrow went up when she heard the dubious expression. "Eight months later?"

Castle shook his head. "More like four."

"Wow," Beckett mouthed. "What about Gina?"

"Our wedding was...well, it was everything you might expect from a wedding planned by a frustrated writer turned publisher," Castle explained with a grimace. "I was swamped in every little detail for *months*. Whether I liked it or not."

Beckett nodded sympathetically, rubbing Castle's shoulders gently before turning her attention back to the list. "Okay," she summarized, "when you add in the poker gang and Martha's banker that makes...674."

"Jesus," Castle breathed out, as much a prayer as a declaration of frustration. "How many of those are Network?"

"Two hundred, maybe?" Beckett countered, looking for confirmation of the number.

The question was hardly what Castle wanted to hear, regardless of how close Beckett was to the actual number. "So even if we limited the wedding to our 'top secret' friends it's still going to be bigger than we wanted?"

"Yep," Beckett declared with a weary sigh. "So much for limiting things to our closest friends and family."

Castle matched his fiancée's frustration before an idea struck him. "What if we eloped?" he asked with a growing smile.

Beckett's eyes widened when she recognized the look on Castle's face. "You're *serious*?"

Castle nodded. "We go to Vegas, right now. Spend the weekend at the Aria..."

Beckett smile was starting to match her fiancé's. "I always did like that place," she agreed.

"We have a great honeymoon," Castle purred, turning on every bit of charm he possessed as he slid closer to his soulmate. "Any where you want...then we get to start the rest of our eternal lives together without all of this hassle hanging over our heads. What do you think?"

Beckett seemed to be considering her options carefully when Esposito broke into their conversation, his voice clearly showing the slightest hint of panic. "Your appointment with Elvis is going to have to wait, guys. We got incoming."

#

Steve was forcing himself to hold back the hope that was starting to anchor in his heart. "You're telling me that if I bring Bucky here, you guys can heal him? Completely?"

Lanie and Banner both nodded. "As long as all of his limbs are still in good working order underneath whatever he's hooked up to," Lanie replied, "then yeah, we should be able to help him return to normal."

"What about his mind?" asked Steve. "HYDRA's had him pretty messed up for a long time."

"Master Mùshī should be able to help him," Banner replied confidently

"And if he can't, then this Skye girl can?" Steve repeated what he had heard earlier, making sure he had all the details straight. Lanie and Banner both nodded again.

Steve felt ready to head right out and search for his old friend...until he saw Esposito approach out of the corner of his eye. He turned to face the Guardian. "I know that look," he told Esposito. "Do I need to suit up?"

"No time for that," Esposito replied, not slowing his pace down to talk. "I got a feeling this is something big. And it's already on its way."

An alarm klaxon erupted, its wailing noise making it hard for anyone to talk to each other any further. Steve, though, still tried. "What is that?" he asked Beckett, knowing the woman could still hear him even as they all fell in lock step behind Esposito.

"Intruder alert," Beckett replied.

"Ever go off before?" Steve yelled back.

Beckett turned the corner before responding to the question. "Nope."

Steve opened his mouth to respond, then closed it quickly as he took in the sight in front of him. Adrenaline started to course through his veins as Steve went on high alert. "So these guys aren't friends of yours?" he asked Esposito.

Esposito matched his friend's defensive stance. "Never seen them before."

"O...kay," said Steve, his nerves tinging the edges of his voice as he tried to take in the scene before him. An overwhelming feeling of peace washed over the room, causing Steve to relax his position and turn to the man who he knew was the source of the emotion. "Master...?"

Ryan shushed the superhero and killed the alarm with a wave of his hand. Three blue-skinned men were each bent down on one knee before the Guardian. "How...how may we help you?" Ryan asked, not even sure if the beings in front of him spoke English.

"Forgive us," the being in the middle replied to Ryan's question. "While we have worked with the leaders of your world in the past, this current governmental configuration is new to us, so we were not able to familiarize ourselves with the changes in diplomatic protocols..."

It took a moment for Ryan to catch up with what he was hearing. "What are you talking about?" he blurted out.

The being in front of him frowned in confusion, turning to study each of the humans as they cautiously approached the circle. "Are you...are you not the leaders of this world?"

Ryan opened his mind to connect with the beings kneeling before him, and gasped at the strange thoughts and feelings that flooded his consciousness.

Esposito noticed the change in his friend immediately. "Uh, bro?"

Ryan ignored Esposito, fighting to make sense of what was going through his head...and finally deciding to take things one step at a time. "Who are you?"

"We are Kree...my lords," the being replied. "I am Kalum Zann. I have brought my brothers Dan and Ael with me. We have come to request your assistance."

"How can we help you?" asked Steve.

Kalum Zann looked up at Steve, then turned to Ryan for guidance. "Rise, please, and answer my brother's question," he told the Kree, hoping to 'fake' sounding and acting as regal as he possibly could.

The three beings rose to their full standing height...and Ryan was starting to wish he hadn't told them to get up. "Well," he exclaimed, "you guys are...huge, aren't you?"

Kalum Zann ignored the comment. "Our brother was sent to the homeworld of one of our enemies..."

Castle swallowed nervously. "Us?"

"No, my lords," replied Zann. "The Chitauri."

Steve tensed up at the sound of the name. "The Chitauri?"

"Yes, my lords," Zann agreed. "My brother followed the Chitauri here to Earth, but we have not received any information from him for months." The Kree knelt down before Ryan a second time. "My lords, I humbly request your assistance in ascertaining the location of my brother."

Ryan opened the floor to his fellow Guardians while he appeared to 'consider the matter'. _What do you guys think?_

_Do you guys really think that these Kree are only interested in finding their brother? _asked Lanie.

_Hell no, _Esposito replied.

_I agree,_ added Fallon. _But the only way to find out what the Kree really want is to find their man._

Ryan put his hand to his mouth to mask his nod. _So we're in agreement, then?_

_Yep, _the group agreed in mental unison.

"We will help you find your brother," Ryan announced to the Kree. "But it will take us some time."

The three Kree bowed low in an extended show of grateful submission. "Thank you, my lords," said Zann.

When the Kree disappeared from their positions in the circle, the group's discussion began in earnest. "Okay," said Castle, "that was..."

"Awkward?" added Beckett, completing the thought.

Castle smiled warmly. "You read my mind."

Beckett returned the smile and patted her fiancé gently on the cheek. "I always do." She then turned her attention to the rest of the group. "So anyone have any ideas how we can start looking for one eight foot tall alien on a planet of several billion people?"

Steve's face fell as he thought of his answer to that question. "Normally, I would suggest that I talk to my contacts at SHIELD..."

"Why *don't* we talk to SHIELD?" Ryan agreed, inspired by Steve's idea. "All their secrets have been published online, haven't they? If they had had contact with giant blue human-looking aliens it would be public record now, wouldn't it?"

"The government has been re-encrypting more and more of that stuff every day," Castle countered. "And I don't know about you, but I'm not nearly good enough with computers to do anything about that..."

"Maybe not," Esposito chimed in. "But I think I know somebody who is."

#

_Comments, anyone?_


	5. Chapter 5

Coulson watched Skye and Agent Koenig guide and push Ward down the hall. When the two agents turned the corner, he turned around to see the base's other four agents standing behind him in the hallway. From the looks of shock and awe on their faces, it was clear that none of them was able to forget or ignore what they had seen. Not willingly, at any rate. "Coulson," May began, tentatively feeling out the situation as the apparent spokesperson for the group, "*what* happened back there? How...?"

"Not here," Coulson insisted. "It's going to take some time to explain. We might as well get comfortable."

The group filed back into the main room, deliberately avoiding making eye contact with Coulson as they walked past. Once the group was situated in the room, though, May jumped right in. "What happened back there, Coulson?" she repeated. "What the hell is going on with you?"

"Ward betrayed us," Coulson replied calmly. "He's HYDRA, just like Garrett. So we're treating him accordingly."

"But how did you *get* that information?!" exclaimed Simmons, Coulson's explanation ringing false and unsatisfying. "What did you...and Skye..."

Coulson winced. "You saw that, huh?"

May glared at Coulson as her finger pointed out the cameras discretely installed in every corner of the room. "This is one of Nick Fury's installations," she explained. "When you chased us out of the room we went straight to Koenig's office. What did you think we were going to do?"

"And even if we hadn't looked at the tape," Fitz insisted, "that wouldn't explain how you were able to lift Ward over your head with one hand like you were Captain bloody America..."

"You've never shown any indication of such a level of strength and speed in your previous physicals, sir," added Simmons. "And there's nothing in your files."

"There wouldn't be," Coulson agreed.

May's eyes widened. "You've been *hiding* this secret all along?!" she exclaimed.

"Not 'all along', exactly," Coulson corrected her, shaking his head. "Just...recently."

Simmons' agile mind seemed to be working furiously, trying to put together every scrap of a puzzle piece as it was given to her. "How 'recently', sir?" she pushed. "Was this before or after..."

"The Battle of New York?" asked Coulson, giving Simmons the out she was looking for.

Simmons nodded. "Yes, sir."

"After," said Coulson. "Technically."

"Technically?" asked Simmons.

Coulson leveled a withering glare at May. "My abilities were...suppressed. By the memories that were planted in my head to cover up what was done to me."

"So when Centipede uncovered the truth..." Simmons suggested.

"At first, I thought I was hallucinating. But once I accepted the truth, the abilities kicked in along with it."

May raised a wary eyebrow. "And what truth was that...Phil?"

Coulson moved in a burst of speed, crossing the room and leaning over May's chair until his face was inches away from hers. "The truth that I accepted was that there are things out there that we weren't meant to understand. That maybe we were never *meant* to fully understand. But if we put our faith in them, they'll help us when we need it the most."

May gasped when Coulson's irises flashed a glowing, bright orange right in front of her. Only when she saw that glow did the evidence of her eyes finally sink into her soul. "You're an 084, now..." she exclaimed.

"He is," Skye announced. "So am I."

Everyone but Coulson jumped at the sound of Skye's voice. Coulson, though, was unfazed. "Ward is secure?"

"As secure as I could make him."

"And Koenig?"

"Won't remember a thing," Skye replied. "As far as he knows Ward is just a HYDRA spy who followed us here. Anything out of the ordinary has been wiped."

Simmons' eyes widened as she tried and failed to connect what Skye was saying to what Coulson had been trying to tell them. "Wait a second, why has Agent Koenig been *wiped*?! *How* has he been wiped?"

Skye slowly entered the room, trying to assess the situation even as her attention was mostly focused on Coulson. "Should I get started? Or is this the big reveal?" she asked her 'boss'.

"It's the big reveal," Coulson declared. "So don't wipe them yet."

Skye eyed Coulson quizzically. "Why not?"

"Because there's a war on, now," Coulson explained. "And you and I have two options: we can run and start over, or we can stay and fight. But if we're still going to fight, we need to know there's something still here worth fighting for." His gaze fell back on May. "I need to know that the people I'm fighting alongside can be trusted." When May withered under Coulson's unwavering stare, Coulson broke eye contact and returned his attention back to Skye. "And we can't know if they can be trusted until we tell them everything."

Fitz was starting to feel 'out of the loop'. "Tell us everything about *what*?!"

"I'm not just a computer hacker," Skye admitted. "I can also 'hack' people's minds."

Simmons immediately saw the parallels. "That's...that's what happened to Ward when you interrogated him, isn't it? You 'hacked' him!"

Skye nodded. "I suppressed Ward's ability to do three things."

"His ability to see, his ability to move his arms and..."

Skye's face fell into a grim expression of sympathetic disappointment. "His ability to lie to us, Jemma. I'm sorry. Everything he said was the truth as he knows it."

Simmons caught on first. "If everything that Ward was saying was true, then..." She suddenly found herself on unsteady legs. "My God..." Simmons exclaimed, "Ward really *is* HYDRA..."

May, for her part, had already moved past Ward's betrayal and was trying to process the earlier part of Skye's conversation with Coulson. "She was going to wipe our memories of you interrogating Ward? And replace them with 'fake' memories?" Coulson nodded. "Like what was done to you?" Coulson nodded again. "Why?"

"Because HYDRA wants us both," Coulson replied. "Me for what happened after my 'death' and Skye for her ability."

"Hold up, they *know* that she can do this?!" Trip exclaimed.

Coulson's eyes never left May's. "Simon Quinn tried to take her when she was a child."

"The raid on that village..." May added, fitting the pieces.

Coulson nodded. "I *think* the agents who found Skye figured out what she could do. That's why they hid her from both HYDRA and SHIELD."

"And why you're so careful with who knows about her ability," May agreed.

"I'm not a hundred percent certain either side can be trusted with her," insisted Coulson. "Especially now."

May watched the body language of both Skye and Coulson as Coulson spoke. "You trusted Agent Coulson with your secret?" May asked Skye. "Why? Why not just wipe his mind and keep all of this to yourself? I mean, since you obviously have done this to all of us at least once before now."

"What?!" Fitz and Simmons exclaimed simultaneously.

"And Coulson watched you do it," May insisted. "How else would he know?"

"Because he's *immune*," Skye countered. "I can't change anything in his head. At all."

May's eyes widened as her thoughts were forced to return to the original subject of their conversation. "Because of...whatever's going on with him?" Skye nodded, so May turned her attention entirely to Coulson. "Well?"

"It's...complicated..." Coulson's voice trailed off when he noticed Skye's focus completely disengage from the conversation. "Skye?" he asked. "What is it?"

"It's...the Mùshī," Skye explained. "He's asking for my help with something."

"Who's asking for what?" asked Trip, confused.

Coulson shushed his team. "What does he need you for?"

"They...they were approached by...aliens!" Skye exclaimed, amazed at the images that were coming down her mind-link with Ryan. "Some big blue species called the Kree..." The gasp that Coulson heard come out of May was not lost on the agent; however Skye continued her explanation before Coulson could ask about it. "He wants me to come in and help them see if there's anything in the SHIELD files that went public..."

"There might be information here," Coulson agreed. His eyes locked with May's. "What do you know about the Kree?"

"Me?" asked May.

"I saw the way you reacted when Skye mentioned the name," Coulson countered. "Trust has to go both ways, May. What do you know?"

May's expression grew increasingly pained. "I...I can't tell you. Fury's orders."

Skye wasn't buying that excuse. "SHIELD is gone now, May," he argued. "Fury's dead. If you know something we need to know..."

The look on May's face showed her almost physical level of pain. "I..." The memory of Coulson's glowing orange eyes flashed through her mind, and she shuddered. "They told me you couldn't know. That I needed to protect you..."

Coulson wasn't backing down. "Melinda, I can take care of myself..."

"Clearly," May agreed. The disconnect between the information in her head and the evidence of her eyes finally clicked into place. "SHIELD doesn't know about this, do they? Whatever 'this' is?" Coulson shook his head. "Does HYDRA?"

Coulson shook his head again. "If any of them ever found out..."

"You'd be back on that table," May mused. "And they'd probably never let you off it again."

Coulson nodded. "Now, I could let Skye wipe all of your memories of this conversation. She could probably wipe every memory that you have of either of us..." When Skye solemnly nodded, Coulson continued, "I really don't want to have to do that, Melinda, but I *need* to know I can trust you."

Melinda stared into Coulson's wide brown eyes, hoping to draw some strength from the contact. His earlier words floated through her mind. _Some things we aren't meant to understand. But if we put our faith in them..._She broke her eye contact with Coulson and turned to Skye. "These Kree...did they look human, but with blue skin and no hair?"

"Yeah," Skye replied, "how'd you know?"

May re-set her focus on Coulson. "When they asked me to start looking out for you, I got one chance to study your entire file."

"I've seen the file..." Coulson argued.

"Not all of it," May corrected him. "Just what Director Fury thought you were capable of handling at the time. In the file, they mentioned the source of GH-325."

"The drug that brought me back?" asked Coulson.

May nodded. "Your file - your full file - said that GH-325 was a distillation of the blood of a dead Kree warrior."

Coulson collapsed into the nearest chair, shocked for a moment by the revelation. "Alien blood was used to...resurrect me?" May nodded. She leaned forward, looking for any sign that Coulson was starting to truly lose it.

It never happened. Coulson thought about everything that had happened to him, bad and good, since his resurrection. The memories helped him to get over the shock quickly. "Skye, let Master Mùshī know that SHIELD has had recent dealings with the Kree. Then ask him if Master Sìfāng can come and get us and how soon."

Skye's eyes lit up in hopeful anticipation. "We're going to New York?"

"We can't do anything just sitting here," Coulson replied. "And at this point the Network has more resources than we do."

"Wait a minute," May interjected. "The bus is out of gas. Completely. And there's not enough fuel here for us to go *anywhere*. So how do you propose we get to New York?"

Coulson smiled. "Let's just say...it's a kind of magic."

Trip rolled his eyes at the reference. "Great. Next you'll be telling me there can be only one..."

Skye ignored the comment. She had one far more pressing concern on her mind. "What about Ward?"

"Is he still blind?" asked Coulson. Skye nodded. "Then we'll take him with us. The Xiānzhī can get more out of him than we ever could." Coulson turned to the rest of his team. "Now's the time to decide, folks. You can stay here, wait this out until it's over. Or you can come with us. Live up to that oath we swore."

Fitz was the first one to speak. "There's no one in SHIELD I've believed in more than you. That hasn't changed. I'm going."

"I'm coming too," agreed Trip. "After watching the number you two did on Ward earlier, I'd much rather be fighting for you than against you."

"Then I guess I'm along for the ride, as well," Simmons chimed in, finally recovering from the shock of Ward's betrayal. "After all, Agent Triplett *is* my responsibility..."

Coulson smiled at the way Simmons threw his own words back at him before turning to the one member of her team who had yet to declare her intentions. "Well, Agent May?" he asked. "Will you be joining us?"

"I just have to do one thing, first," she told the group. "If everyone would follow me, please."

Curious as to May's intentions, the group followed May until she stopped just outside the door to Koenig's office. "Skye," she asked, "can you get Agent Koenig to leave his computer?"

Koenig sprinted out of the room so quickly the group immediately turned to Skye for an explanation. "Bathroom," Skye replied. "When you gotta go..."

Trip chuckled quietly as May made a beeline for the computer. After typing for a few furious seconds, she stood back, seemingly satisfied with the results. "There. *Now* we can leave."

"What did you do?" asked Simmons.

"I deleted the footage of Ward's interrogation," May explained. She turned to Coulson, her expression showing a desire for his approval. "Gotta have faith in something, right?"

"Thank you," Coulson replied, relieved and grateful. He turned to Skye. "Any word from the Sìfāng?"

"Whenever you and your team are ready, AC."

Trip, May, Fitz and Simmons wheeled around at the sound of the new voice that spoke up behind them. Simmons was the first one to place a name to the familiar face. "Am I hallucinating," she asked, "or did Richard Castle just...magically appear out of thin air?"


	6. Chapter 6

"Director? Ma'am?"

Homeland Security Director Diane McPherson snapped her attention back to the video teleconference she was supposed to be deeply involved in. "Oh? Sorry...where are we on the SHIELD situation?"

"The Talbot ruse worked like a charm," replied Network Director Mark Fallon. "Our people were able to get out before the formal agencies took over and buried what's left of the place in red tape."

"And where are your people now?" asked Diane.

"En route," Fallon replied. "We lost track of them when they got out of the Hub, but we were just able to correct that..."

Diane nodded, clearly distracted. "Uh huh..."

Fallon noticed and decided to call his boss out on her lack of focus. "We found them in the middle of Central Park buried neck-deep in horse dung."

"Good thing you found them, then," Diane agreed.

"Diane?" Fallon asked directly, hoping the use of his boss' first name would grab her attention. "What's going on?"

Diane sighed, deciding to just get to the point. "I'm going to a friend's retirement party this weekend. He and his partner are getting ready to leave the force after a long and distinguished career together."

"Good for them," added Fallon.

Diane shifted her position in her chair until she was fully engaged in the conversation for the first time, leaning forward to take up more of the camera frame. "There's something about my 'friends' that's bothering me, though, Mark. You see, according to their chief, my friends are the picture of the perfect police partnership. Even though they're just about to retire, my friends are still considered to be the best team in the entire department."

Fallon was starting to have a sinking feeling about where this conversation was headed. "That...that's a great credit to your friends, ma'am. And a high compliment."

"I thought so, too, at first," Diane agreed. "But then the chief said something that struck me as odd."

Fallon swallowed hard, possessed by a sudden case of nerves. "What was that, ma'am?"

"Well," Diane replied, "according to the chief, my friends are considered to be the poster children for health and fitness among the department rank and file. He said, and I quote, 'Ellison and Sandburg look like they haven't aged a day in at least the past five years, maybe longer.' Now, you wouldn't happen to have any ideas as to *why* my friends have been able to stay as young-looking as they have, would you?"

Fallon shook his head, hoping his lie would come across as convincing. "No, ma'am. Perhaps it's just the healthiness of their lifestyle..."

Diane seemed to eye Fallon warily. "Of course," she declared, her tone revealing that even she didn't believe what she was saying. "That must be it."

"Must be," agreed Fallon, his voice showing that he didn't believe his words either.

"I just hate the idea that people I thought I could trust could be keeping secrets from me," Diane warned.

The warning wasn't lost on Fallon. "Duly noted, ma'am.'" The instant sound of conversation alerted Fallon to the arrival of his guests. "If you'll excuse me," he suggested to Diane, "I believe our guests have just arrived."

"Then I'll leave you to the tour," said Diane.

"Will do," Fallon agreed...until he realized how close to his office the group was. "Unless you would like to meet them as well? Might do them some good to know that not everyone in the government's against them."

Diane nodded. "I'll stay on the line."

"Thank you," said Fallon.

A knock at the door interrupted the conversation. "Mark?" asked Coulson. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Of course not," Fallon replied with a smile.

"Thanks for the heads up earlier," said Coulson after the two men separated from their embrace. "That was an awful mustache, though. Couldn't the Yīzhī have made you a better disguise?"

"I wanted you to be sure who you were *really* talking to," Fallon countered, matching Coulson's teasing tone. "Would you have run if you hadn't recognized me?"

Coulson considered the idea for a minute. "Maybe," he declared. "Maybe not. Either way, it's definitely good to be back."

"Good to have you back," Fallon agreed. The sound of a woman gently clearing her throat reminded Fallon that there was someone waiting to join the conversation. He turned the monitor to face Coulson. "Phil, I'd like to introduce you to my boss, Homeland Security Director Diane McPherson."

Coulson jumped to a higher level of attention when he recognized the face on the screen. "Ma'am."

"As you were, Agent Coulson," Diane insisted, waving off the formality. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. My people speak very highly of you, as did some of the few people I trusted at SHIELD."

"Thank you, ma'am," said Coulson.

Diane decided to take advantage of the opportunity. "Any news on Director Fury?"

"He's alive, last I heard," Coulson replied, to Diane's obvious relief. "But he's gone dark. No one's heard from him or from Captain America since the battle at the Triskelion." The knowing look that passed between Fallon and Director McPherson was not lost on Coulson, and he immediately made the missing connection. "Cap's here, isn't he?"

"Recovering and regrouping since the battle," Fallon replied.

Coulson let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Nice to get good news for a change," he sighed with relief.

"What about your team, Mr. Coulson?" asked Diane. "How are they?"

Coulson's face fell. "My team's intact, technically," he replied. "Although we've discovered that one of my men is a HYDRA agent."

Fallon's expression matched that of his spirit-brother. "Sorry to hear that, Phil. I know how much you care about your people."

"Where is this man now?" asked Diane.

"He's here," Coulson replied. When Fallon and Diane both jumped to a heightened state of concern, Coulson reassured them, "but he's currently blind and deaf with a very limited level of mobility. I doubt he has a clue which country he's in, let alone of anything else."

"Shadow?" asked Fallon.

Coulson nodded. "She's getting more comfortable and skilled with her gift every day. It's a little scary, sometimes."

"You've lost me, gentlemen," Diane chimed in. "Who's this Shadow person?"

"A member of Coulson's team," Fallon explained. "Maybe the most powerful projector we've ever come across. Shadow has the power to permanently affect the mind, bypassing free will and survival instincts if necessary."

Diane's eyes widened. "So your prisoner...?" she asked Coulson.

"Was the picture of health this morning," Coulson replied. "But he also had the misfortune of being Shadow's S.O. when we found out he was HYDRA. She might have gotten a little...overzealous...in making sure he was secure."

"Sounds like it," Fallon chimed in.

"I'm hoping Master Xiānzhī can help us find out what he knows and what HYDRA's planning," said Coulson.

Diane nodded. "He certainly is capable of doing such a job." She turned to Fallon. "Has Master Xiānzhī agreed to this yet?"

"This is the first I'm hearing of this," Fallon replied. "I have yet to talk to Master Xiānzhī about it."

"Then I will let you two go to get the Guardians up to speed," declared Diane. "Agent Coulson, I know that SHIELD has been declared a terrorist organization. There was very little I could do about that, considering the massive security breach and the very public incident at the Triskelion. However, I am no fool. Eliminating the HYDRA threat is far more important than wiping egg off of the government's face. As far as I'm concerned, you and your people are under the protection of the Guardians. I will do whatever I can to keep...other interested parties off your scent."

"Thank you," Coulson sighed, grateful for the official offer of help.

The Homeland Security director straightened up and leaned in to try and look as imposing as she could over a video conference feed. "I'm not finished, Agent Coulson," she insisted. "My loyalty is not to you or your team. It is to the Guardians and *my* team. And you've already admitted to having one traitor among you. If you or your team do *anything* to jeopardize the security of my people, the bus that I will throw you under will be so big and so fast that not even Master Sìfāng will be able to rescue you from it. Do you understand?"

Coulson nodded, the message coming through loud and clear. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good," Diane declared. "Please keep me posted on HYDRA and the situation with the Kree. Good day, gentlemen."

"Yes, ma'am," Fallon and Coulson murmured quietly as the screen went black.

Coulson let out a low whistle, deeply impressed with the woman he had just met. "And I thought Fury was a tough boss..." A thought occurred to him. "She doesn't have..."

Fallon shook his head. "Nope. Although I wouldn't be surprised if the tiger spirit took one look at her and figured she didn't need his help."

#

Melinda May looked around her at the stark, unfamiliar, bustling warehouse, trying and failing to get her bearings. After having been teleported there. By a pseudo-celebrity pulp fiction crime novelist.

When she was much younger, May had always believed she could adapt to any situation. It was the trait that SHIELD had recruited her for: her adaptability...

SHIELD. Not only did the SHIELD as she knew it no longer exist, it never really existed in the first place. SHIELD was based in lies and built on lies. And she had bought into those lies hook, line and sinker. Thinking that those lies were truth. That she was protecting the 'greater good'. That she was protecting the people she cared about more than anything else in the world.

Those lies were a house of cards. That house, and her world, collapsed in less than a week.

Worse...she had betrayed her best friend. Thinking that she had been protecting him. And instead of rejecting her outright, he had entrusted her with his biggest secrets. Putting both his *and* Skye's lives in her hands. Because, according to him, they had no place else to go. And he was probably right.

So here she was. In a situation that was rapidly fraying her nerves and her sanity. But while part of her wanted to just abandon everything, burn her identity and start over somewhere tropical...she couldn't. The girl who grew up to be Melinda May, Agent of SHIELD had never run away from anything in her life and she sure as hell wasn't going to start now. "What is this place?" she asked Skye, who seemed to be the only one who was comfortable in their new location.

"It's called the Network," replied Skye.

"The 'Network'?" asked May. "That's a pretty non-specific name..."

"What does this 'Network' do?" asked Simmons.

Skye looked around, watching the people buzz by them, moving with purpose and dogged determination...somewhere. It briefly reminded her of the Hub, which reminded her of SHIELD...forcing the melancholy thoughts out of her mind, Skye focused on Simmons' question, and soon discovered that she didn't have an answer. "I don't really know, to be honest," she admitted. "All I know is that they helped me learn who I am, what I can do, who my parents are...I owe them everything, really."

"From what people keep telling me," a voice chimed in behind them, "that's pretty much the Network in a nutshell. Although I'm supposedly part of the eye of this storm so what the hell do I know..."

Skye recognized the owner of the voice immediately. She wheeled around and flung her arms around Ryan's neck, embracing him in an enthusiastic hug. "Hi, teach!" Skye exclaimed.

"Grasshopper," Ryan greeted her back, returning the embrace. "It's so good to see you. After everything that happened with Cap we were all so worried..."

Skye fixated on the first part of Ryan's comment as she pulled away from Ryan's greeting. "Is Cap okay?! We hadn't heard..."

"He's *fine*," Ryan replied. "Crusher got him here a couple of hours after everything that happened in DC." He leaned in, bringing his voice down to a semi-conspiratorial whisper. "He's been driving Phoenix crazy down here ever since."

Skye chuckled, appreciating the moment. "I'll bet," she agreed.

"Skye?" Simmons asked hesitantly. "Who's your friend?"

Ryan frowned, confused by the question...until he remembered who he was talking to. "Grasshopper, did you..."

"What?" Skye countered defensively. "It made sense at the time! I was protecting you guys from SHIELD!"

Simmons found that she didn't like where this conversation was headed. "So Agen...May was right, wasn't she? You *have* 'hacked' all of us before!"

"She did," Coulson agreed with Simmons' statement.

"When?!" May demanded, turning to include the two men into the conversation.

"When we went after the Clairvoyant," Skye admitted quietly. "The Guardians were a major part of that raid..."

May frowned as the name sounded familiar and unfamiliar to her at the same time. "The 'Guardians'?"

Ryan sighed, turning to his 'student' with an expression of patient disappointment. "Do we have to go through that whole explanation *again*?"

"No," Skye relented with a petulant sigh. She waved her hand as a physical sign of the mental exercise she was performing.

Four pairs of eyes widened in shock at the same time. "I remember it all now!" Simmons exclaimed. "But it's like I have two sets of memories in my head: the ones that involve the Guardians and the ones where we defeated Quinn on our own."

"Now you know how I feel," Coulson grumbled.

May stared at Coulson in awe as the last pieces of the puzzle of his abilities fell into place. "I remember a tiger on the bus," she announced, looking to Coulson for confirmation. When he nodded, May continued, "you called it your 'spirit animal', and the tiger...the tiger was *happy* that you had finally accepted him into your life. He has something to do with this, doesn't he?" Coulson nodded again. "There was an...an army that supported us going into the raid on Quinn's compound," May added, accessing her 'alternate', true memory of the event. "The army made Centipede's super-soldiers look like a bunch of girls coming after us in a pillow fight. Because...because they moved like *you*!"

"The tiger spirit possesses the army temporarily when the Guardians need their help," Fallon explained. "But Phil, here, has earned a rare honor: the ability to call on the tiger spirit to help him whenever he needs it."

"That's what happened when you went after Ward, isn't it?" May exclaimed in a breathless gasp. "You were working with the tiger spirit?"

Coulson nodded. "I guess you could technically say the tiger spirit is the 084, not me."

"I wouldn't say *that*," May muttered under her breath. Out loud, she asked the only question that was going through her mind. "Are you the only one who has earned this...honor?"

"He isn't," Fallon replied.

The ring of orange light that flashed in Fallon's eyes caused May to gasp as another piece of the puzzle fell into place. "You...you and Coulson...you're like *him*?"

Fallon nodded, extending his hand to May in greeting. "Mark Fallon. I'm the director of the Network."

When May shook Fallon's hand, a different, more recent memory rose to the front of her mind. "Are you related to a Glenn Talbot? He's an Air Force Colonel..." The last thing May expected to hear in response to that question was a hearty chuckle from both Fallon *and* Coulson. "What am I missing here, gentlemen?"

Fallon suppressed his chuckling long enough to adopt a mask of deathly sincerity. "Mr. Coulson," he announced, "it's a real mess your boys have gotten us into..."

May caught on quickly. "That was *you*, Director Fallon?"

Fallon nodded again. "We're...a top secret branch of the Department of Homeland Security, answering directly to the President and Director McPherson. As such, we were able to hear about the terrorism declaration before it was made public. Colonel Talbott's little video conference was a coded warning to Phil to get you guys out of there before you could be arrested."

"Thank you," May commented quietly. The matter settled, her mind went back to her original set of questions. "So...this is all about some mystical 'tiger spirit', then? You weren't treated at the Guest House?"

Fallon stared at May, quizzically confused. "The Guest House?"

"Guess it's time to get down to business," announced Coulson.


	7. Chapter 7

"First things first," Fallon announced to the group. He pointed to the barely coherent Agent Ward. "Is this your prisoner?"

Coulson nodded. "Agent Grant Ward," he teased, knowing Ward was incapable of hearing him, "Director Mark Fallon."

Fallon glared at Coulson. "C'mon," he nudged Coulson. "Let's go get your man settled in." He turned to Castle. "Master Sìfāng, would you help us create the perfect place to stash Mister Ward here?"

"Sure," Castle replied with a shrug. He turned to Coulson. "Does your friend here need extra padding or just no knob on his side of the door?"

The three men pushed Ward down the hall, and the rest of the group headed toward the conference room...with two exceptions. Simmons seemed frozen in place, her expressive face showing a thousand different emotions.

Skye noticed the woman's internal conflict. "Simmons?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

Simmons hesitated for a moment before responding. "Why'd you do it, Skye?" she asked, her voice showing a clear level of anger. "What made you think you had the right to go inside my head and change what I *think*? Who I am?"

"Jemma..." Skye began.

"I thought we were *friends*, Skye," Simmons countered, her voice dropping to a harsh, angry whisper. "You didn't think you could *trust* me..."

"You are a part of SHIELD, Jemma!" Skye argued, matching Simmons' angry whisper. "Even before all of this went down it was no secret what SHIELD would do to someone like me."

Simmons' face flushed red with barely suppressed frustration. "I am not SHIELD, Skye..." she insisted.

"Aren't you?" Skye inisisted. "Think about it. If we were talking about anyone else who could do what I can do, what would you want to do with them? *To* them?" Simmons opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and sighed when she realized that Skye was right. Skye sighed herself, mostly in sympathy for her friend's internal conflict. "Look, I understand why you're upset. But I didn't just do what I did to protect myself. I did it so you wouldn't have had to make that choice. Because you *are* my friend."

Simmons bit her lower lip, frustrated by the logic of Skye's counter-argument. "I'm still mad at you," she admitted.

"You have every right to be," agreed Skye.

"But that SHIELD? The SHIELD you needed to be so scared of? It's *dead*. Maybe gone for good. So can we make a deal? I'll agree to protect you and Agent Coulson and you agree not to re-wire my head without my permission?"

Skye smiled for the first time in the conversation. "Deal," she declared, extending her hand to affirm the deal with a handshake.

Simmons shook her hand, then pulled the other woman into an awkward embrace. "I hate arguing like that," she confessed into Skye's shoulder.

"Me too," Skye agreed with a chuckle. "So are we good?"

"For now," said Simmons.

The two women separated from their embrace and caught up with the rest of the group as they headed to the conference room.

#

John Garrett was not happy. While he had no particular affection for Grant Ward, Garrett had been able to draw a small modicum of comfort from the fact that if he sent Ward out to do something that the younger man would move heaven and earth to get the job done...

Until now.

_Where in God's name is he?_ Garrett thought angrily as he prowled the floor of his Cuban hideout. _They couldn't have found him out, could they? Nah, who are we kidding? Captain Oblivious and and his crew of needy mental patients? They couldn't recognize a HYDRA man if one came up and smacked them in the face. So what could have happened to him?_ Garrett face flushed with rage as he realized the only thing that could have possibly been enough of a distraction to cause his 'partner' to drop off the map. _It's the girl. It has to be. He's probably holed up somewhere with that goddamned girl..._

"S-s-sss...sir?"

Garrett forced his attention to the present. "What is it, Jenkins?"

"I think I might have some information for you, sir. On Agent Coulson, sir."

Garrett sat up, his attention now fully focused on the man in front of him. "Well don't just sit there expecting me to 'read your mind', son," he teased. "What did you find?"

"I didn't find anything exactly *specific*, sir," Jenkins replied. "But I did find quite a few references to a place called the Guest House in SHIELD's files. It seems to be where they did their most hush-hush top secret medical experimentation, sir."

"Like performing a resurrection," Garrett mused, looking over Jenkins' shoulder to study the information on the laptop's screen.

"Yes, sir," said Jenkins. "If there's anyplace where SHIELD would have been able to pull off something like that, it's there."

Garrett, for the first time that day, smiled. "Gentlemen," he announced to the soldiers congregating in various spots around the room. "It seems we just may have found SHIELD's drug store. Anyone want to go see what kind of toys they might have in *that* particular toybox?"

The room instantly became a buzzing hive of activity. "Good work, Jenkins," said Garrett, patting the younger man on the shoulder.

"It's...it's Robertson, sir. Tyler Robertson."

"Whatever. Get me everything you can find on this Guest House. We're wheels up as soon as you find the location."

#

Beckett took over leading the meeting in Fallon's absence. "Phoenix told me..."

May stopped Beckett, confused by the reference. "Phoenix?"

"Director Fallon," Beckett replied. When the SHIELD agents nodded in acceptance of the correction, Beckett began her question a second time. "Phoenix tells me you have had dealings with the Kree in the past?"

"Not personally," May replied. "I remember briefly reading a file that mentioned experiments that SHIELD performed on a race that matches the description of the Kree. That's about as far as I've gotten."

Esposito changed chairs to sit closer to May. "May I?" he asked, leaving his hands open, palms up. May hesitated, staring at Esposito's hands as the debate raged through her mind. It was a debate that Esposito was all too familiar with. "Director McPherson has made sure I have the highest level security clearances," he explained, "and I will *only* use any memories that are pertinent to the case. Now, may I?"

Reluctantly, May put her hands in Esposito's. He briefly closed his eyes as the memories flew through his mind, linking with other memories he had already collected. "Coulson's been there..." he declared.

"Where?" asked Ryan.

"It's called the Guest House," Esposito explained. "It's a top top-secret base used specifically for military experiments. The file that Agent May saw was the details of what SHIELD did to resurrect Coulson after the Battle of New York. What few memories AC has of that time match up with the details in the file as she remembers it."

May leaned forward, her curiosity piqued by what Esposito was telling them. "You're comparing my memories of the file with Agent Coulson's memories of what happened to him?"

"What memories he has of the time, yeah," replied Esposito. He turned to his team. "I have no idea if the Kree at the Guest House is the Kree that we're looking for, but there is one there."

Castle asked the one question that was on everyone's minds but no one else wanted to ask. "Is he alive?"

Esposito shook his head. "He's dead. Has been for a while. They're using the body as the source for their experiments..."

"Including the drug that resurrected Agent Coulson," May finally admitted with a sigh.

Fallon and Coulson stopped in the doorway to the conference room. Coulson noticed the grim, determined set of his spirit-brother's jaw. "What are you thinking?" he asked Fallon.

"I'm thinking we need to go break into this Guest House and steal a body," Fallon replied.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: ** Okay, it's clear that Agents of SHIELD is in reboot mode: get rid of May, get rid of Ward (we all know it's coming), resolve the cellist storyline, etc. etc. etc. And a lot of the storylines in the show are just predictable to the point of being annoying. (C'mon, who didn't see Koenig's death coming? And Ward kidnapping Skye? Please...) Fortunately...this story is in an *alternate* universe. Which means I can play in the sandbox as I see fit...heeheeheeheeheehee...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled twilight zone...

#

Skye stared at the closed door like she could see through it to the man on the other side. Agent Grant Douglas Ward.

*HYDRA* Agent Grant Douglas Ward.

She felt so stupid. She had been so close to falling for him...*had* fallen for him, if she was being completely honest with herself. And he was a traitor.

_Was all of it a lie?_ she thought. _Am I just that gullible? No...there's good in there, somewhere. There *has* to be._ _I just need to find it..._

Skye opened the door to the room next door to Ward's 'cell', entered the room, then closed the door and locked it behind her. She leaned against the wall that separated her from her former S.O., feeling his presence on the other side of the thin plywood between them. Skye closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. It wasn't long before she found the now-familiar core of energy at the very center of her soul, and she grabbed onto it with everything she had, molding and shaping the energy with her mind until it became the bending, twisting, endlessly moving tube of light she wanted. Skye then maneuvered the tube until the end extended through her body, out of her heart, through the wall, and into Ward's mind. _Open your mind, _she heard her father's gentle, patient voice. _Then empty it. The only way to understand the mind of another is to listen to it with your entire being..._

She gasped as her world disappeared in a blinding flash of light.

#

Skye opened her eyes and found herself in a meadow of tall grasses and wildflowers. The sun was shining down with a brightness that caused her to squint against its power. The wind whistled through the field that surrounded her, but she didn't feel it on her skin. It was the only indication that this was not her reality; it was someone else's.

"Help!" a little boy called out from a few yards away. When Skye focused on the sound, she saw a stone well in the distance. "Help me!" the little boy's voice repeated. "Somebody help me!" Skye jogged over to the well and peeked over the side. Two little boys were in the bottom of the well: one who looked up to her with wide, pleading eyes...and one who was floating face down in the water. "Please," the little boy called up to her. "Please, lady, can you help me?! I can't get out of here by myself, and my little brother is hurt!"

"Hang on!" Skye yelled back to the boy. "I'm going to find some rope!" She turned around, trying to find something, anything that she could use to help that little boy...

Until she was stopped. The teen who stopped her should have been her height, but instead looked like he was almost a head taller than Skye was...and pure muscle. "Can you help me?" she asked the teen with desperate urgency. "There are two boys at the bottom of that well..."

"I know," the teen replied coldly. "I dropped them down there."

Skye's mouth dropped open in shock at the teen's admission. "You...you *dropped* them down there? How could you! I think one of them might be dead!"

"He was a wimp," the teen argued. "The other one is too. I'm trying to toughen him up a little. What are *you* doing?"

"Saving his life," Skye declared angrily. "Apparently from you." Her first punch was a blow to the teen's gut. When the teen was doubled over, Skye then landed a solid uppercut to the young man's jaw, and when the boy was about to collapse on the ground face first...she grabbed him by the shoulders and kneed the teen in the groin.

The last shot was the final straw. The teen disappeared. Skye quickly discovered that she no longer held the young man's shoulders in her hands, but instead held a coil of rope that was easily long enough to reach the bottom of the well. She ran back to the well and threw the one end of the rope down toward the boy at the bottom. "Tie this around your waist," Skye yelled down to the boy. "I'll find a way to pull you up..."

"No!" the boy exclaimed. "Get my brother out first!"

Skye shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Just my luck," she grumbled, "he wants to selflessly send up the big unconscious lump first." Skye quickly suppressed her complaint, though. "Okay!" she called back to the boy. "Yank on the rope when he's ready!" The rope tensed in her hands, and Skye pulled as best she could. It took all of her effort, but the child felt lighter than she would have thought, and it only took a few minutes to get the boy out of the well. She immediately checked the boy's pulse; when she found one, she performed CPR until the boy rolled over and started coughing up water. Smiling with relief, Skye then threw the rope back down the well. "Now you!" she yelled down the hole.

"Okay!" the boy yelled back.

The boy was heavier than his brother, but he walked up the wall as Skye pulled, making the job easier than it should otherwise have been. Once he was able to climb over the top of the well's stone wall, the boy scrambled to the ground and made a bee line for his brother. "Dougie!" he exclaimed. "Dougie, are you okay?!"

Dougie rolled over at the sound of his brother's voice. "My fwoat huts, Gwant," Dougie complained.

Grant smiled, relieved that his brother felt strong enough to complain. "It's okay, Dougie," he assured the younger boy. "It's all going to be okay." He turned to Skye. "Thank you for saving my brother's life," he told Skye.

"You're welcome," said Skye. "What's you're name?"

"Grant," the boy told Skye, holding out his hand to be shaken. "Grant Ward."

Skye's eyes widened when she realized who she was talking to. "N-n-nice to meet you," she finally stammered out in amazement. "Nice to finally meet you..."

#

Skye woke up in the storage room, gasping for air with long, panicked gulps. It took her a minute to recognize where she was...and a few *more* minutes to recall the details of her memories. "What the hell was that?!" she exclaimed.


	9. Chapter 9

Trip squinted against the bright sunlight, barely keeping his balance as he adjusted to the contrast between the smooth floor of the warehouse and the rocky terrain of the mountainside. "You guys sure that this is the place?"

"Yeah," Esposito replied. "The entrance is right over there."

Castle looked out at the endless stretch of coastline before turning his attention to the concrete façade built into the hillside. "Nice view," he commented. "With scenery like this you'd think they would have wanted a few windows..."

"You don't normally have windows in super top-secret facilities," countered Coulson. "Especially ones that aren't even supposed to exist."

"I thought this was a SHIELD facility?" asked Simmons.

Coulson shook his head. "Technically, it's a 'private think tank'. But its biggest client is Director Fury."

"So how do we get their attention?" asked Castle.

Beckett looked at the venn diagram symbol adorning the only metal plate anywhere in sight. "I guess we just ring the bell," she suggested.

A voice came over the intercom after Beckett pushed the button. "How was the drive from Istanbul?" a male voice asked the group.

"They're looking for a countersign," Coulson informed them.

_On it,_ Ryan projected into the minds of the group. He opened his mind, stretching to make a connection with one of the guards on the other side of the door. "The coast is beautiful," he announced, "as long as you don't have to deal with the traffic in Marrakesh."

"Welcome," the voice replied. The door opened with a soft click. Ryan pushed the door open fully, allowing Coulson and Beckett to lead the team through the darkened corridor to a security desk where two guards sat next to the strongest source of light in the room. "You folks don't have an appointment," the guard who answered the door told them. "But I let you in because you know the protocol." He chambered and unchambered the round in his pistol in an attempt to look intimidating. "So how can we help you?"

"Agent Kate Beckett," he told the men, flashing his badge. "Homeland Security. Director McPherson ordered my team to come here and take a tour of your facilities. You mean to tell me you didn't get the memo?"

The guard shook his head. "No, sorry."

Castle pulled a piece of paper out of his coat pocket and handed it to the guard. "I'm old school," he told the guard. "I assume that tech is going to fail first and succeed second. Which is why I always carry a paper backup."

The guard warily took the paper from Castle, reading it thoroughly. "This...looks in order," he agreed. "Let me just make a call to clear this up..."

_You don't need to make a call,_ Ryan projected into the guard's mind.

The guard put down the receiver. "You know what," he said, "I don't need to make that call."

_The paperwork looks in order,_ projected Ryan.

"The paperwork looks in order," the guard repeated.

_Turn on the lights and let them just get on with it already. _

The guard turned on the lights. "You folks have a nice day now. Just call up if you need us."

Beckett smiled, knowing that the guard's quick change of heart could only have come from one source. "We'll do that," she agreed. "Thanks."

_Don't talk out loud for a while,_ Ryan projected to the group. _At least until we're out of earshot of the guards. Unlike Skye, I can't make permanent changes to their minds. If they hear something suspicious they're likely to come back shooting at us._

_So can we all talk this way?_ thought Trip.

_Yep,_ the Guardians replied in unison.

Trip chuckled as silently as he dared. _Okay then,_ he replied into the mind-link, _guess I've gotta learn to watch what I'm thinking._

The Guardians all chuckled into the mind-link in response. _Your first lesson in how to live around the Guardians,_ Ryan agreed. He then turned to his partner. _Where to now, man?_

_This way,_ Esposito announced to the group as he made a right turn into a nearby corridor. _Not that much further._

The group passed through a set of swinging doors into what looked to be a surgical observation area. Coulson looked down into the operating room below them...and the entire group shuddered. "Is that...?" asked Fitz.

"Yeah," Coulson replied. No more words were needed to explain the memory that all of them were now experiencing through their linked minds.

"Wow," Esposito exclaimed. "I had no idea..."

"Neither did I," agreed Coulson. The silence was tense and uncomfortable. Coulson drew in a tremulous breath and let it out in short, slow, shaky puffs as the horrific reality sunk in.

Ryan was the first one to recover from their shared experience. He centered his emotions around the core of his gift, drawing in energy and radiating it out as peace before turning to Esposito. "Which way?" he asked his partner.

"Through these doors," said Esposito. The team followed his lead as they moved through several research labs until, buried behind several boxes and storage crates, they found a yellow door with the word "T.A.H.I.T.I." stenciled across the front. "*This* is the magical place?" Esposito asked Coulson.

"Well, you know what it's like when you peek behind the curtain," Coulson cracked, trying to defuse the situation with humor. "It takes all the fun out of it."

Ryan pushed aside the obstacles between the group and the door, then pulled the locked door off its hinges with one powerful pull. The door floated in mid-air for several seconds before floating quietly to the ground.

Trip shook his head in amazement, deeply impressed by the display. "Am I glad you're on our side..."

Castle smiled as he stepped through the debris to reach the lab...but then his face quickly fell as he recognized the design of the room in front of him. "This is a morgue," he declared.

Coulson nodded. "I was probably kept here, when I..."

No one wanted Coulson to finish that particular sentence. "Open the drawers," Beckett ordered the group. "Let's see what we have here *now*."

Coulson pulled open a drawer labeled "G.H." in the center of the room's back wall. He gasped when the contents of the drawer revealed themselves. "I think we might have found your 'guy;," he exclaimed.

May and Esposito were the first to join Coulson, surrounding the enclosed, transparent coffin case as the rest of the group crowded around behind them. "That's him," they declared in unison.

"More like half of him," Trip agreed.

Fitz and Simmons traced the tubes that were coming out of the body as far as they could reach. "The blood has been drained to another part of the building," said Simmons. "I can't tell where from here, though."

"I don't think we're going to get the chance to find out," Beckett declared. Her worried expression sent the Guardians on high alert. "We got company."

The report of automatic weapons fire confirmed Beckett's announcement. "Can you send Fitz and Simmons back to the warehouse with the body?" Coulson asked Castle.

"What about the rest of us?" asked May as the two scientists disappeared.

Coulson chambered a round in his pistol. "I have a feeling I know who this is," he declared, "and I just want to make sure that he and I aren't on the same page."

May followed the lead of her 'former' S.O., then frowned when she realized that Trip was the only other person carrying a weapon. "What," she exclaimed, rolling her eyes at the Guardians, "you guys don't believe in guns or something?"

"Don't really need them that much," Ryan replied with a shrug.

May tried to ignore the nervous knot that comment formed in her stomach as the group filed out into the hallway. Garrett was smiling at the other end of the corridor, surrounded by a dozen armed men in full body armor...each one packing a machine gun. "Well, well, 'Agent' Coulson," taunted Garrett, "I wouldn't have expected to see you here..."

"Can't say the same," Coulson countered. "After all, don't cockroaches usually hide under rocks?"

Garrett seemed unfazed. "So who are your friends?" he asked, his eyes leering at Beckett even while he was still talking to Coulson.

Coulson had to resist the urge to smile. "A safe port in a storm," he shrugged.

Garrett looked past Coulson; his focus was almost entirely on Beckett. "Sure I can't convince you to switch over to the winning team?" He practically licked his lips as he examined Beckett from head to toe.

"Sorry," Beckett drolled, "but I prefer to be with a man who carries a big gun *and* knows how to use it."

"Shame," exclaimed Garrett, shaking his head. "Ah well, I guess we don't need you alive to figure out how you came back from the dead, Coulson." He turned to the man who was kneeling next to Garrett's left side. "Fire."

Bullets went flying in every conceivable direction as they ricocheted off of Castle's energy shields. When the guns went silent and the dust settled, Garrett was expecting to see Agent Coulson and his cohorts lying dead in a bloody heap.

Garrett was disappointed...but Trip was impressed. "Effective," he commented to the Guardians.

Esposito smiled briefly, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Portable, too..." he hinted, tilting his head in the Garrett's direction. The Guardian sprinted across the corridor, finally tackling Garrett and barreling through his soldiers before sending both men to the ground. But before he could get off a punch, Esposito staggered backwards, struggling as a vision hit him full force.

Garrett struggled to his feet, shaking his head to clear his disorientation and wrap his head around what he had just witnessed. He took out his pistol and pointed it at Esposito, emptying his clip at point-blank range only to find that not a single shot found its target. "Who the hell *are* you guys?"

His question was never answered. "CASTLE!" Esposito screamed at the top of his lungs. "GET US OUT OF HERE, NOW!"


	10. Chapter 10

The party was supposed to be small. Just a few old friends getting together to celebrate the end of one of the most legendary careers in the Cascade PD.

Well...technically *two* of the most legendary careers...

Jim leaned on the railing of his balcony, his super-sensitive hearing attuned to every sound in the overcrowded loft even as he looked out at the sights of his city. His city...Jim chuckled quietly as the realization hit him once again. Technically, Cascade was no longer 'his' city. He was a *retired* police officer. The oath he had taken to 'protect and serve' the people of Cascade no longer applied to him.

And yet it did. He was never just a police officer. Jim Ellison was a Sentinel: a genetic throwback to a time where every tribe had a protector whose genetically hyper-enhanced senses were the tribe's first line of defense. And that protector never 'retired' from the job. _Of course,_ Jim thought idly, _the ancient Sentinels rarely lived long enough to get to retirement age..._

"Man," a booming, familiar voice commented behind him, "it's been a long time since I had to go through that kind of a gauntlet just to light up a cigar..."

Jim smiled, not needing the comments to know the identity of the man standing behind him. He turned around to embrace one of his oldest friends. "Simon," he greeted the older man with a smile. "It's been too long. How's Washington treating you?"

"Same old, same old," Simon grumbled. "I can't wait until it's over."

"I hear ya," Jim agreed sympathetically. "How's Diane?"

"Ask her yourself," Simon replied. He tilted his head back toward the bustling loft behind them.

Jim immediately spotted the woman in question, listening to his guide talk with animated enthusiasm about his beloved students. "I was surprised when you two RSVP'd for this," he admitted to Simon. "What with everything going on in DC and all. We were planning on coming out to visit next week..."

"Totally Diane's idea," Simon insisted, holding up his hands in a gesture of pseudo-innocence. "She told me she needed the change of scenery..."

"You don't sound like you're buying it," Jim countered.

Simon took a swig from his beer bottle, then rested his hands on the railing, dangling his beer and cigar over the edge as he stared out at the skyline. His expression fell into a grim mask of concern. "I think she's starting to suspect, Jim. About you and Blair." Jim mouthed a silent "oh" as he turned to stare out at the cityscape with his former boss. "She knows about everything else, Jim," Simon insisted. "Why not this? It's not like you can't trust her."

"I don't know," Jim shrugged. "At first I had a hard enough time getting used to the idea. Then after I watched Blair die and come back those first couple of times...I guess all those old fears came back."

"About becoming somebody's lab rat?" Jim nodded.

"I would never let that happen to you two," Diane insisted. "You know that."

Jim turned around to find that Blair and Diane were now standing behind them. He motioned to the nearby patio furniture, encouraging everyone to sit for the long-overdue discussion. "I know," said Jim. "To be honest, the main reason we haven't brought it up is because before now it wasn't necessary. You two were over there and we were here. It didn't seem important."

"So what's changed?" asked Simon.

"New York," Blair quietly declared. "And DC. SHIELD, HYDRA, all of it."

"Blair and I both agreed that we couldn't just focus solely on protecting Cascade when it felt like the world was starting to crumble around it." added Jim.

Diane's mind started to make the necessary connections. "That's why you guys are taking your 20, isn't it?" she asked them.

Jim nodded. "We want to join the bigger fight."

"And we can't do that here," agreed Blair.

Simon was starting to pick up on his friends' intentions. "You guys are going to New York."

Blair and Jim both nodded. "At this point," said Blair, "they may be the only government organization left that we know we can completely trust..."

Jim noticed Diane's hesitant reaction to his guide's statement. "Wait," he asked Diane, "has that *changed*? Is there some reason we can't trust the Guardians anymore?"

Diane leaned back into the chair and sighed wearily. "Honestly? I don't know," she replied. "They're working with a former SHIELD team now..."

That got Jim and Blair's attention immediately. "And you're not sure you can trust them?" asked Blair.

"Not completely," Diane admitted. "Their leader is reportedly beyond reproach..."

"But so was Alexander Pierce," Jim added, catching on to the source of his old commissioner's hesitation.

Diane nodded. "And this Agent Coulson's already discovered that one of his team is HYDRA. Combine that with the way Director Fallon's been acting lately..."

Jim and Blair both leaned forward, surprised by Diane's last comment. "How has he been acting?" asked Jim.

"I think he's keeping secrets from me," Diane declared. "Again." Jim and Blair shared a split-second glance of unspoken communication...which Diane caught on to immediately. "You know the secret he's keeping from me, don't you?"

"We do," Blair replied.

A lightbulb went off in Diane's mind. "You guys all *share* the same secret, don't you?" Jim and Blair both nodded. "Well?"

Jim and Blair sighed, knowing the moment of truth had finally arrived. "You know that Katya came back...different after the battle of Central Park, right?" asked Blair. When Diane nodded, Blair began his explanation. "She wasn't the only one..."

#

It took the group a minute to regain their balance after the abrupt change of scenery. "What the hell happened back there?" Trip exclaimed. "What was the big rush? We could have taken them, easy..."

"Master Xiānzhī is clairvoyant," Coulson explained. "He tells you to get out of the way...get out of the way."

"The Guest House was rigged to explode if someone tried to raid the place," Esposito explained. "And your friend Garrett tripped the switch."

"So he's dead?" asked May.

Esposito shrugged. "As far as I know."

"And we probably would have been, too, if Master Xiānzhī hadn't gotten us out of there," Coulson explained, his eyes never leaving Trip's. Trip quietly nodded.

Fitz and Simmons ran up to the landing area, their breathlessness seemingly coming as much from excitement as exertion. "Oh, good!" Simmons exclaimed. "You're back!"

"You guys weren't that far ahead of us," Coulson countered, confused. "You found something interesting already?"

Simmons blew off Coulson's question. "No, no. Nothing yet. But you won't *believe* who we found working in this place!"

Coulson chuckled lightly, strongly suspecting the identity of the person to whom Fitz and Simmons were most likely referring. "Lead on," he told his eager science team.

The group followed Fitz and Simmons through the maze of corridors until they came to the door of what looked to be a well-equipped medical and technical lab. Inside the lab Coulson found the man and woman whose presence he was expecting...and the one man he had hoped he would never have to speak to gain. Both men were now looking at Coulson like they were seeing a ghost. "Doctor Banner. Mister Stark," he greeted the two men.

"Coulson," Stark responded with barely controlled anger. "I though you were dead. We *all* thought you were dead."

"I was," Coulson answered matter-of-factly.

"So SHIELD brought you back?" asked Banner. Coulson nodded. "How?"

Coulson pointed in the direction of the Kree half-corpse the two men were standing between. "Our new friend over there."

Banner's eyebrows went up, surprised by Coulson's answer. "Him?"

Coulson nodded. "Apparently I was injected with a serum derived from his blood."

Suddenly inspired, Banner went over to a nearby computer and called up a file. "This was *you*?"

Coulson looked over Banner's shoulder and read what he saw on the monitor screen. "I think it might be, yeah," he declared.

Fitz and Simmons quickly crossed the room, flanking Banner and Coulson as they read the file for themselves. "Sir," Simmons exclaimed in amazement, "this drug...what it did..."

Stark's curiosity was piqued enough by Simmons' amazement to override his resentment over Coulson's resurrection. "What did it do?"

"Cell regeneration and restoration on a massive scale," replied Simmons. She turned her attention to the Kree corpse. A thousand mixed emotions seemed to be racing across her face at once. "If we could figure out how to replicate what was done to you...if we could somehow manufacture this drug...it could cure spinal cord injuries...regenerate amputated limbs...sir, it could cure *cancer*..."

"I...wouldn't jump on the 'salvation of the world' bandwagon too quickly," Banner warned. His eyes never left the screen as he continued to read the file. "Subjects suffered from severe mental and emotional side effects, including hypergraphia, aphasia, catatonia, dementia and outright psychosis. These effects could only be counteracted by completely erasing the subject's memories of the procedure..."

"So you would be completely physically healed, only to end up going bat-crap crazy because of *how* you were healed?" asked Trip.

Banner nodded. "Looks like it."

Esposito looked up at Coulson, his eyes filled with concern for his friend. "This is what they did to you?" Coulson nodded.

Trip was *not* liking what he was hearing about his 'boss'. "Should we be worried?" he asked.

"I doubt it," Lanie replied. "Only one way I know to be completely sure, though..." She turned to Ryan and Esposito. "I have an idea, but I'm going to need both of you to help me with it."

"What are you thinking, babe?" asked Esposito.

Lanie focused on Coulson as she described her plan to Ryan and Esposito. "A full 'physical'," she explained. "We work together to evaluate AC here mentally, emotionally and physically. If we find anything suspicious..."

"With the three of us working together we should be able to fix anything that might possibly need to be fixed," Ryan agreed. "Sounds good to me."

When Esposito nodded in agreement, the three Guardians formed a circle around the former SHIELD agent. Coulson's gaze never left Lanie. "You need me to do anything?" he asked.

Lanie shook her head. "Just relax. This should only take a minute."

Coulson nodded, holding his hands together to keep from fidgeting nervously. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly to continue to try and calm himself down. "Ready when you are, doc."

Lanie smiled reassuringly before taking her own deep breath and closing her eyes. Once she felt centered, she placed her hand on Coulson's shoulder. Ryan and Esposito quickly followed.

Trip watched the scene unfold before him with a wary, curious confusion. "I thought they were going to give him a physical..." he whispered to Castle, who shushed him quiet.

The three Guardians came out of their collective trance a moment later. Lanie looked to her friends for confirmation of her findings. "I found nothing wrong," she declared definitively. "You guys?"

Esposito and Ryan nodded in agreement. Ryan soon stopped, though, and smiled when he realized why they all came to that conclusion. "So that explains it..."

"What?" asked Coulson.

"Why you were 'adopted'," replied Ryan. "I think the tiger's keeping the side effects at bay."

"The tiger?" asked Simmons. "The spirit that May mentioned earlier?"

Esposito, Ryan and Coulson all nodded. Coulson caught a glimpse of the way Esposito's expression was shifting just slightly. "What?" he asked.

"You must be one hella important to the good guys, AC," Esposito replied.

Stark's memories of the battle on the helicarrier floated to the front of his mind...along with every thought, feeling and action that followed as a result of that battle. "You have no idea," he declared. "No idea..."


End file.
